Work-life balance and toxic work practices in corporations have become the talk of the town in recent months. Be it the Indian business tycoon N R Narayan Murthy, who set the internet on fire with his “70 hours work” comment or the young CEOs of Indian tech companies like Zepto and Greptile.
In the latest controversy, Zepto’s CEO Aadit Palicha posted on X on Wednesday (Dec. 4) saying, “I have nothing against work-life balance. I recommend it to all our competitors.”
I have nothing against work-life balance. In fact, I recommend it to all our competitors 🙂
— Aadit Palicha (@aadit_palicha) December 4, 2024
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The post got immediate attention after Palicha replied to the post saying, “FYI, not my quote – read it from an interview with Daksh Gupta.”
The post was basically a nod to the Greptile CEO Daksh Gupta who has been a subject of criticism online for endorsing long work hours.
Palicha’s X post quickly went viral with people connecting it to a recent anonymous Reddit post calling Zepto’s work culture “toxic.” The Reddit post claimed the company pressures its employees with demanding expectations.
The post further claimed that Palicha starts his day at 2 pm because he faces difficulties waking up early. This habit of his leads to team meetings being scheduled at 2 am.
An X user replied to Palicha’s post saying he “woke up early” to write the post. Another user also took a dig at him as she wrote, “Ah, burning the midnight oil to dunk on toxic work culture posts on Reddit? Bold strategy! So, what time’s your first meeting today—asking for your coffee machine.”
‘Zero tolerance for mediocrity’
The backlash on Gupta started when he posted a controversial opinion on November 9 on X saying, “Workdays start at 9 am and end at 11 pm, sometimes later. We also work Saturdays, occasionally Sundays. The environment is high-stress, with zero tolerance for mediocrity.”
(With inputs from agencies)